Sad Mac
April 18th, 2008 by joby
In March with the release of a new rev of Macbook Pro, I (well my work) replaced my old Dell Laptop. A few years ago I had completely abandoned Windows for Ubuntu — and I’ve been quite happy. But the Macbook Pro is an excellent computer, and as I’ve gotten older my interest in doing the research to figure out how to use some Linux based software has waned.
Since switching to the Mac, I have been very happy. Though there are three things that annoy me occasionally:
1) missing keys — Steve Jobs obsession with minimizing the number of buttons helps create wonderfully simple and clean devices, but the missing ‘Home’, ‘End’, ‘Page Up’, ‘Page Down’ keys took me a while to adjust to — and there are still some instances where I really miss them.
2) only one mouse button — what the hell is up with this? There is no reason to not have two buttons except for Jobs’ obsession.
3) Very few configuration options — with almost all Linux applications there are configuration options to modify every minor aspect of the app’s behavior (of course it takes a lot of research to figure out what many of the options do, and determine what is best), but with the Mac there are frequently only a couple of options. For example iMovie allows you to output your video in 4 resolutions and that’s it. Avidemux has hundreds of options, iMovie has one option with 4 values — which is not acceptable. I like iMovie’s format for selecting clips to include, but I haven’t been satisfied with the output.
But with those annoyances, I have been very happy — until Wednesday night when my Mac got sad. After burning a DVD, I was opening a couple windows and then the power just cut out. The Mac immediately started to reboot, but the power cut out again when I tried to log in. Eventually I figured out that when I applied pressure to a 3 inch square area on the left palm rest the power would cut out. So I finished some work and then left the laptop alone for the night. In the morning it didn’t repeat the behavior. But while at work it started again. Damn. I took the laptop back to the University Bookstore, and demonstrated the behavior — they were quite bewildered (not good). As of 5 PM last night, they had completed the Apple Hardware and Software diagnostics and discovered no errors — but they could still replicate the failure.
So I’ve switched back to my Dell, and I no really appreciate the usability of the Mac — particularly the multi-touch touchpad. I’m sad over my sad Mac.